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The latest in this series will focus on one man who (temporarily) changed the direction of the company he loves.
The Undertaker
One of the reasons why Vince McMahon loved buying out his competition was so that he could get exclusive access to their rosters. He often claimed that his only reason for buying Stampede Wrestling was to get the contracts of the British Bulldogs and the Hart brothers. So when he acquired World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), he had a wealth of new talent to add to his own company. But where were they?
In theory, now that the WWE had no competition, they had no one to lose their fans to. In reality, they were the sole ambassadors for their industry. It was more important than ever for the WWE to put on a better product with new stars. The established veterans would continue to get older, and their injuries would become more numerous and take longer to heal. But for some reason, the InVasion story line of 2001 focused mainly on established WWE talent. One person who was concerned about the direction of the company was The Undertaker.
At the conclusion of the story line, the Undertaker started focusing on putting over younger talent. For some fans, seeing him win the Hardcore Championship and taking on mid-carders seemed like a major step down. But to the Undertaker, it was necessary to elevate younger talent.
Let’s look at something else that happened in 2001. The WWE launched Tough Enough, a reality show based competition with MTV. The show featured 13 wrestling fans with no experience competing for a WWE contract. It was eventually won by Maven Huffman, who debuted days after being announced as a winner. His first few matches proved that 13 weeks was not enough time to train for a full-time career in the WWE. He was quickly sent to Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) to finish training.
The truth is, they never wanted Maven to win. It was MTV’s decision. Maven was by far the most popular person on the show. His fellow finalists, Christopher Nowinski and Josh Matthews, both had wrestling experience on the independent scene. If either of them won, then the competition would appear biased. The WWE were not happy with Maven, and were planning on firing him. But doing this would have put their relationship with MTV in jeopardy.
Maven’s appearance at the 2002 Royal Rumble was meant to be his final appearance, but Maven was unaware of this. Less than a minute after entering the ring, Maven famously eliminated The Undertaker from the match. This was a far cry from the original script.
It all started off according to plan. Matt Hardy and Jeff Hardy would reunite as a tag team and go after the Undertaker. Undertaker would eliminate them both before Maven joined the match. The Hardyz would continue to attack Undertaker, just for Undertaker to throw them out of the ring once more. Maven would dropkick the distracted Undertaker over the top rope… but that is where the proposed plan ended.
The Undertaker was not supposed to go completely over the top rope. He was supposed to remain in the match, and then eliminate Maven. But as we saw, Undertaker got eliminated, but Maven did not. The segment in which Maven was beaten up all the way into the back, and then thrown headfirst into a popcorn machine was in the original script. His injuries would be the story line reason for Maven not returning to television.
Undertaker was supposed to return to the ring and get eliminated by Steve Austin. Undertaker did not understand this arrangement. What was the point of Undertaker dominating the match for so long, just to be quickly eliminated by Austin, and then do nothing more? Undertaker was not scheduled to feud with Austin at all. He figured it would be better to use his elimination to put someone over, and maybe set up a feud.
The plan worked spectacularly well. Because Maven did not get eliminated from the Rumble, fans demanded closure, and to see much more of Maven. The WWE were obligated to give Maven a WWE Championship match, and a match against the Undertaker. Management planned on having Maven lose the first match, and then get destroyed by Undertaker in the second (as it would have been under Hardcore rules). Do you remember who the WWE Champion was at the time? None other than Chris Jericho. Even though Maven lost, he got to show management that he had potential. But the WWE needed one more test.
Maven was going to challenge Undertaker for the Hardcore Championship, but was going to win. The Rock would interfere, setting up their match at the next pay-per-view. If Maven could get over in this match, they would keep him on. If he couldn’t, then he would be written off when he eventually lost the title.
Maven got over.
But this was not the end. The Undertaker proved himself as someone who could get anyone over. The result was a much bigger push for Undertaker. Undertaker would become the WWE Champion for 2 months in the Summer. He would feud with veterans like The Rock, Triple H, Hulk Hogan, Steve Austin, Kurt Angle and Ric Flair. But all the while, he was putting over younger stars like Randy Orton, John Cena, Tommy Dreamer, Jeff Hardy, Rob Van Dam and Brock Lesnar.
The Undertaker
One of the reasons why Vince McMahon loved buying out his competition was so that he could get exclusive access to their rosters. He often claimed that his only reason for buying Stampede Wrestling was to get the contracts of the British Bulldogs and the Hart brothers. So when he acquired World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), he had a wealth of new talent to add to his own company. But where were they?
In theory, now that the WWE had no competition, they had no one to lose their fans to. In reality, they were the sole ambassadors for their industry. It was more important than ever for the WWE to put on a better product with new stars. The established veterans would continue to get older, and their injuries would become more numerous and take longer to heal. But for some reason, the InVasion story line of 2001 focused mainly on established WWE talent. One person who was concerned about the direction of the company was The Undertaker.
At the conclusion of the story line, the Undertaker started focusing on putting over younger talent. For some fans, seeing him win the Hardcore Championship and taking on mid-carders seemed like a major step down. But to the Undertaker, it was necessary to elevate younger talent.
Let’s look at something else that happened in 2001. The WWE launched Tough Enough, a reality show based competition with MTV. The show featured 13 wrestling fans with no experience competing for a WWE contract. It was eventually won by Maven Huffman, who debuted days after being announced as a winner. His first few matches proved that 13 weeks was not enough time to train for a full-time career in the WWE. He was quickly sent to Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) to finish training.
The truth is, they never wanted Maven to win. It was MTV’s decision. Maven was by far the most popular person on the show. His fellow finalists, Christopher Nowinski and Josh Matthews, both had wrestling experience on the independent scene. If either of them won, then the competition would appear biased. The WWE were not happy with Maven, and were planning on firing him. But doing this would have put their relationship with MTV in jeopardy.
Maven’s appearance at the 2002 Royal Rumble was meant to be his final appearance, but Maven was unaware of this. Less than a minute after entering the ring, Maven famously eliminated The Undertaker from the match. This was a far cry from the original script.
It all started off according to plan. Matt Hardy and Jeff Hardy would reunite as a tag team and go after the Undertaker. Undertaker would eliminate them both before Maven joined the match. The Hardyz would continue to attack Undertaker, just for Undertaker to throw them out of the ring once more. Maven would dropkick the distracted Undertaker over the top rope… but that is where the proposed plan ended.
The Undertaker was not supposed to go completely over the top rope. He was supposed to remain in the match, and then eliminate Maven. But as we saw, Undertaker got eliminated, but Maven did not. The segment in which Maven was beaten up all the way into the back, and then thrown headfirst into a popcorn machine was in the original script. His injuries would be the story line reason for Maven not returning to television.
Undertaker was supposed to return to the ring and get eliminated by Steve Austin. Undertaker did not understand this arrangement. What was the point of Undertaker dominating the match for so long, just to be quickly eliminated by Austin, and then do nothing more? Undertaker was not scheduled to feud with Austin at all. He figured it would be better to use his elimination to put someone over, and maybe set up a feud.
The plan worked spectacularly well. Because Maven did not get eliminated from the Rumble, fans demanded closure, and to see much more of Maven. The WWE were obligated to give Maven a WWE Championship match, and a match against the Undertaker. Management planned on having Maven lose the first match, and then get destroyed by Undertaker in the second (as it would have been under Hardcore rules). Do you remember who the WWE Champion was at the time? None other than Chris Jericho. Even though Maven lost, he got to show management that he had potential. But the WWE needed one more test.
Maven was going to challenge Undertaker for the Hardcore Championship, but was going to win. The Rock would interfere, setting up their match at the next pay-per-view. If Maven could get over in this match, they would keep him on. If he couldn’t, then he would be written off when he eventually lost the title.
Maven got over.
But this was not the end. The Undertaker proved himself as someone who could get anyone over. The result was a much bigger push for Undertaker. Undertaker would become the WWE Champion for 2 months in the Summer. He would feud with veterans like The Rock, Triple H, Hulk Hogan, Steve Austin, Kurt Angle and Ric Flair. But all the while, he was putting over younger stars like Randy Orton, John Cena, Tommy Dreamer, Jeff Hardy, Rob Van Dam and Brock Lesnar.
